Service- Learning

This is the first time I have participated in Service- Learning, and I like it. Here are a couple of reasons why!

In a traditional classroom it is highly disciplined. As a student it is our responsibility to listen to the teacher’s lessons, take notes, and ask questions. Also papers are assigned for us students to see if we understand and can apply what we learned from our text books. It is the teachers’ responsibility to follow the curriculum and grade all assignments. These classes are not hands on, and there is a lot of memorization with plenty of tests and quizzes to check it.
With community based experiences you are not learning from just the teacher, but from everyone involved. Instead of just memorizing information you have to be able to apply it to real world scenarios. I feel as a student this is a better way to learn. One cannot just forget the material after a test, because it is continually used throughout these experiences. In this type of class the student has to be responsible in out of class work to be prepared for interacting with the community. But this challenge is more exciting, instead of just sitting in a desk and writing down what you know. The teacher does have to be very observant in these classes to make sure the students do know what they’re doing, and do not offend anyone in the community. The lesson plan is very different, compared to a lecture style class.